The housing offer for young people should soon expand in Douarnenez. Vice-president in charge of housing issues for Douarnenez Community, Marc Raher assures him: “We are going to build a Youth Housing Residence (new name of the Young Workers’ Homes, Editor’s note) during this mandate”. The elected representative is even more precise by indicating that the intercommunality hopes to see the works start at the beginning of the year 2022. “Things should become clearer in the coming weeks but we are planning a structure of 18 to 22 apartments, in T1 or T1 Bis for couples with children, ”continues Marc Raher. For the location, the preferred option is to build it near the Douarnenez Community headquarters, rue Ar Veret. An ideal place, according to the elected official, “both close to the city center, the port and the shops of Tréboul”.
“It responds to a lack on the territory”
The community will probably work in partnership with two private actors, the Logis Breton for the project management and Etap’Habitat, for the animation of the place. Exit Douarnenez Habitat, therefore. “On this type of structure, it is better to trust actors accustomed to carrying out work of this kind, which is the case with the Breton Logis”, justifies Marc Raher, who refuses to quantify the project exactly. “We know that it will represent a fairly substantial sum of money, but it responds to a lack on the territory”.
“It’s a recurring problem,” confirms Marine Calonnec, head of the Douarnenist branch of the Local Mission, which sees 300 young people aged 16 to 25 in difficulty of integration every year. “We have a solid partnership with Douarnenez Habitat, we participate in the allocation committees but that is not enough. Accommodation problems arise in particular for temporary accommodation, three-month interns for example, but not only. Finding accommodation requires having resources. For the most precarious cases, we also sometimes ask for emergency accommodation, put us in touch with the 115 or even with the MFR of Poullan for rooms at the boarding school, ”she lists.
The Roches Blanches squat, “a safety valve”
President of Ateliers de l’Enfer, which welcomes 40 interns aged 20 to 45 each year, Paul Robert also observes the difficulties of the latter in finding accommodation in the region. “We have a file of rental companies but the arrival of AirBnb has complicated things, less and less lessors are offering their accommodation over nine months. Before, there was no tourist rental market in Douarnenez outside of July and August. From now on, the owners rent to people passing through until October. But our trainees arrive in September, and some come with their families, ”explains Paul Robert. “It has happened that a dozen trainees from a promotion sleep in converted vans, near the Workshops, which gave rise to tense exchanges with former municipalities”, he recounts.
He and Marine Calonnec finally confirm that it is not uncommon to see these young people turning, as a last resort, to the Roches Blanches squat. “Personally, I have never directly advised a young person to go there, but when we have really done everything to find something, without success, we can slip that it exists”, concedes Marine Calonnec. “It’s almost a safety valve for them,” breathes Paul Robert.
Other solutions in the boxes
If we add to this the list of seasonal workers in the hotel and catering industry, one thing is certain: a residence of about twenty apartments cannot, on its own, entirely solve the problems of access to housing. this young audience in the territory of Douarnenez. Marc Raher is aware of this. “Given the current trend, nothing says however that we will not see a private developer build a youth hostel in Douarnenez in the coming months,” he considers. According to the elected representative, Douarnenez Community does not “forbid itself anything”. Inter-municipal authorities would be interested in other temporary housing solutions in future years, such as yurts or tiny houses.
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